MMA Customs Migrates to NICIS 2 Automation Platform

Funso Olojo I

The Murtala Muhammed Airport Command of the Nigeria Customs Service has migrated from the old ASYCUDA automation system to the Nigeria Information Customs Integrated System 11 (NCIS)2 automation platform.

Our correspondent exclusively gathered that the migration, which commenced Monday, May 28th, 2018, is expected to enhance the revenue performance of the command which has been on the upward swing since the resumption of Mrs Jane Shoboiki as its Area Controller.
It was also gathered that the Customs Brokers plying their trade at the command were put on adequate notice before the commencement of the new automation platform while the command had earlier trained them on the new system.
However, our correspondent noted that the command could not capture any job on the day of the transition due to the hiccups experienced.
It was also gathered that the officers were only able to treat pending entries with the old system.
However, the command is expected to pick up its high rhythm of revenue-generation tempo after this initial inertia that was common to all the commands which had previously migrated.
This problem has been the characteristic feature of the new automation platform at all the commands which had earlier hooked on to the system.
The Lylipond command was the pioneer command where the new automation system was test run.
There after, other commands such as PTML, Tin-Can and Apapa followed suit and all had a varying degrees of teething problems at its commencement.
MMA command is the latest to join the big league of commands on the latest automation platform in Customs
The NICIS11 platform is an improvement on the earlier automation processes such as ASYCUDA, ASYCUDA 2.3, ASYCUDA 2.7,ASYCUDA ++, and NICIS I, which is a soft ware specially designed to enhance seamless cargo clearance and reduce human contacts which breed extortion and corruption.
Under ASYCUDA , agents could only make five declarations in one hour, but under the NICIS II, they can make up to 18 declarations within an hour.
While agents, under NICIS I, could only view what other control agencies such as NAFDAC, SON, NDLEA are doing with their declarations, under NICIS II, they could actually interact with these agencies.